the blog of hasbean coffee

I like to think I’m quite tech savvy. I own a website that does okay for web sales, I make video podcasts that are watched by thousands each week, and I have a healthy Twitter and Facebook following. I listen to tech podcasts and read blogs.

So much so I even go to tech conferences and listen to how smart I am when they tell me to do the things I am already doing. A recent one in Liverpool was full of the normal advice; reach out to your customers, create a community (do you feel reached out to and part of the Has Bean community? I hope so, as that’s what I’m trying to do here). But it was the same old, same old, and I sat there feeling smug (I’m very good at smug. Next time we meet, ask me to show you my smug face).

But I had attended to listen to one speaker. I’m a huge fan of Gary Vaynerchuk Back in the day, his wine library TV video blog inspired me to launch In My Mug, and I’ve been to see him speak three times now. So whenever he’s in the UK I always try to go to watch his inspirational talks. I’m a stalker for sure, though; I did this Wine Library video, and just recently I did this #askgaryvee question, so you can see I am a fan.

So, smug face engaged, one of my favourite speakers comes onto the stage and the first thing that comes out of his mouth is:

“in 2014 I cannot believe that some websites are not mobile friendly, and it’s because of stupid website owners.”

I sat there going “YES!” and then realised that Has Bean looks horrible on a mobile phone. I tried to console myself with our lovely app, but sadly realised that we’ve missed one of the fundamental building blocks of an e-commerce website.

So before the end of Gary’s talk (which was very interesting), I had emailed our design people. Now we have a lovely, responsive, and mobile friendly version of our website. So it’s gone from this: